By Clint Thompson
Georgia’s peanut crop fared better than some other commodities following Hurricane Helene. However, the crop’s infrastructure is what concerns Scott Monfort, University of Georgia Extension peanut agronomist.
“We laid a bunch on the ground. The wind didn’t really blow them around that bad. We left most of them in the ground, and they’re ready to come out. They’re not going to lose that many as a result of that,” Monfort said. “We did lose quite a bit of tons, because they put them in the trailers; they needed to get them dried, and then we didn’t have any electricity. Some of those had to be thrown away. I think most of the effects we have seen have been all related to indirect hits.
“It’s the fact that in east Georgia that they’ve got to get these dryers online so that we can get them dried. Not to mention that we’ve got to be able to dump them. That’s where our big thing is right now is infrastructure.
“The industry is saying lets field dry them. If we field dry them, that’ll work good for the first couple hundred acres, but after that, we get too dry, and then we start to get very brittle. Those guys are going to start losing peanuts because they’re too dry. If it rains amongst that, then you’re going to knock a bunch more off. Indirectly we could lose a bunch. We’ve got to get this crop in.”
Could Get Worse
Monfort estimates that 10% of the crop was damaged directly. That number could spike if power is not restored to those affected areas as soon as possible.
“These indirects, if we can’t get them fixed in the next two weeks, we could see 30% of the crop in East Georgia take a hit,” Monfort said.
Approximately half of Georgia’s peanut crop was adversely affected by Hurricane Helene when it moved through the Southeast on Sept. 26 and 27.